Travelling Hopefully - La Sagrada Familia

 OK so let’s get the rest of the tour out of the way quickly. A walk through the old town, very nice.  Montjuic, very nice, Parc Guell, very nice.

Now with all that out of the way; La Sagrada Familia.  Very few things live up to their hype quite as spectacularly as La Sagrada.  The outside is a deranged piece of monumental architecture that almost looks as though it was grown rather than built.  This might be deliberate as Gaudi tried to incorporate natural motifs into everything he did.  For Gaudi the beauty of nature was the ultimate proof of the existence of God.  When it is completed it will be the tallest building in Barcelona and will be just a few centimetres short of the height of Montjuic, the highest point in Barcelona.  That’s deliberate as Gaudi would not set up his creation to be higher than God’s.

Past the tortured, almost organic stone work adorned with scenes from the life of Christ one enters the church.  I was astonished at the interior as I was expecting a continuation of the demented frenzy of stonework that marks the exterior.  Instead it is stripped back, almost minimalist with smooth curved stone lines creating a cool, largely unadorned interior.  Spectacular (I know I’ve used the word before but I’m struggling to find appropriate superlatives) stained glass panels surround the church cool blues and greens symbolising morning and the birth of Christ leading to savage reds and oranges symbolising nightfall and his death.

When a contemporary commented on the lack of decoration in the interior Gaudi responded “the church is the decoration.”  And this is perhaps the point.  This isn’t a cathedral set up to trumpet the power and majesty of the Catholic Church.  Barcelona already has a cathedral.  For all its size and lengthy build time La Sagrada is just a church, somewhere for people to come and pray.  When I compare it with the vast interior decoration and triumphalism of the Seville Cathedral I find the latter wanting as a place of worship.  La Sagrada Familia is a place of worship.

Or at least it will be if they ever finish it.